Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
The research focus of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research is our cosmic neighborhood: the solar system with its planets and moons, comets and asteroids as well as the sun. The aim of the scientists is to describe the processes in the solar system in models and to simulate them on the computer. In addition, instruments are being developed and built to study these bodies from space. The Institute is involved in numerous space missions.
Tiny Vortices Discovered on the Sun’s Surface
Images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and computer simulations reveal tiny vortices on the Sun’s surface that have never been seen before. The discovery help to understand how energy builds up in the Sun’s magnetic field before being explosively released. Researchers from the National Solar Observatory, the MPS, and the High Altitude Observatory report their discovery in the journal Nature. The researchers interpret the vortices as signs of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities.
Oscillations, Flares, and Tornados on the Sun
Two years after the stratospheric flight of the Sunrise III solar observatory, the mission’s first results are released today. Sunrise III has captured observational data of unprecedented quality from the Sun’s visible surface and lower atmospheric layers. The data contain new information, such as on tornados in the solar plasma or on the processes occurring before and during a solar flare. During the flight, the Sun displayed its full repertoire: quiet regions, eruptions, sunspots, and more.
A Magnetic Roller Coaster Ride around Jupiter
To date, 250 researchers have successfully earned their doctorates through the International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science. The graduate school is a joint project of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the University of Göttingen, and the Technical University of Braunschweig. In the 250th dissertation, Ilse de Langen calculated magnetic fields and currents in the inaccessible, subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Durgesh Tripathi Receives Humboldt Research Award
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award to Indian solar scientist Durgesh Kumar Tripathi. The award will enable the scientist to deepen his close and long-standing collaboration with the MPS. Among other things, Durgesh Tripathi investigates which processes trigger violent solar eruptions. With the telescope SUIT, he contributes significantly to the Indian space probe Aditya-L1.
